Ex-Wife Loses Again in Battle for Insurance,
Investment Proceeds

April 15, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A woman once
married to a former Ford Motor Company employee has lost
another skirmish in her ongoing legal battle for proceeds
from her now deceased ex-husband's life insurance policies
and a savings and stock investment plan (SSIP).

>The 6
th
Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by a federal judge
in the US District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan that Renee Hansmann was not entitled to the
insurance and investment funds from ex-husband Irone
Pavan’s estate. The lower-court instead awarded the
investment and insurance proceeds – $210,883 in the life
insurance policies at the time of Pavan’s June 1999 death –
to Pavan’s estate in which his nephews Vincent and Paul
Boscheratto, were named as beneficiaries.

>The lower court ruled that Michigan law, not ERISA,
applied because the transaction occurred before the
effective date of ERISA. The district court further
reasoned that Michigan’s public policy required the
application of Michigan law. Appeals judges agreed.

>Hansmann had argued that because Pavan had
originally named her as beneficiary under the Basic Group
Life Insurance Policy, that she should receive money from
that policy, an Optional Life Insurance Policy and the SSIP
proceeds.

>However, the lower court judge and the appeals court
found that Hansmann’s legal interest in the money ended in
April 1972 when her marriage to Pavan was annulled.